"Dinner Rush" is a movie about two New Yorks coming together in the same Manhattan restaurant. There's the old-time mobster New York and the socialite New York, city past and city future. And glittering in the background is the World Trade Center, placing the movie in time.

Aside from a brief introduction, "Dinner Rush" takes place entirely over the course of a single evening, in the kitchen, dining room and sidewalk in front of a TriBeCa restaurant. Bob Giraldi, who directed it, is a successful restaurateur who filmed the movie in his own TriBeCa trattoria, Gigino's -- a nice place; I ate there in June. The kitchen culture and restaurant atmosphere have an unmistakable authenticity, and those virtues, combined with a good story and some colorful acting, make this an independent film worth seeking out.

Danny Aiello, who plays the owner, Louis, looks like a good restaurateur. He's big enough to throw people out, hefty enough not to serve small portions and straightforward enough not to mess with tried and true recipes. To see Aiello sitting there in a suit, with a plate of sausage and vegetables and a glass of deep red wine, is like seeing some Platonic tableau from the ideal Italian restaurant. There's no doubting that everything brought to that table is going to be delicious.

The night presented in "Dinner Rush" has some special tensions. Louis' partner in a bookmaking operation has just been bumped off, and now a couple of young mobsters have camped out at a table, insisting that Louis give them half the restaurant business. Also, a prominent restaurant critic (Sandra Bernhard) -- badly disguised in a wig -- has shown up to review the place.

In addition to these unusual irritations, there are the typical ones that happen every night. An art gallery owner, Mr. Fitzgerald, shows up with an entourage of young painters and, because he has been made to wait 25 minutes for a table, insists on getting a free bottle of '91 Brunello di Montalcino, a wine that goes for a good $100 in a restaurant. As Fitzgerald, Mark Margolis is perfect as a nightmare person to wait on -- condescending, impossible to please and always looking for a way to get something for nothing.

"Dinner Rush" is enjoyable for the documentary aspect alone, for its look inside the kitchen of a restaurant at peak time. But as the film wears on, the dramatic situation, of Louis needing to hold on to his place in opposition to the mob, becomes compelling.

The clash between old and new, evident in the restaurant's clientele, is also at play in the relationship between Louis and his son, Udo, who is the restaurant's chef. Udo (Edoardo Ballerini) is into a modern version of Italian cuisine. Louis likes the basics: "I want food! I want nourishment!" he says. "When your mother was in the kitchen, this place used to smell like heaven."

The restaurant is clearly in transition. When Louis leaves and his son takes over, it will be a different place.

"Dinner Rush" benefits enormously from Aiello's down-to-earth magnificence. In one scene, Louis tells his son he's proud of him. "Why, because I can cook?" the son asks. And Louis answers, "Yes, because you can cook." Exactly. Cooking is a big deal. Cooking is a wonderful thing. And so is acting. At this stage of his career, Aiello has a way of making every line count. . Advisory: This film contains strong language, sexual situations and graphic violence.